These days my threshold for seriousness in fantasy fiction is dialled to 'Terry Pratchett', so I was a little dubious about picking up a wizardy quest book with no jokes. I gave it a shot only because of its impeccable lineage of recommendations - Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr), Randall Munroe, and Gretchen McCulloch (@gretchenmcc@xoxo.zone) - and now I'm hooked on this surprisingly satisfying series.

Steerswomen are a guild of learned travelers, cartographers, gatherers and disseminators of knowledge. Ask a question, and a Steerswoman will always answer, and will never lie. But if she questions you, you in turn must always answer, and never lie. Or suffer the Steerwomen's Ban, which no one wants. Everyone shows them deference and respect. Except the wizards who disdain their knowledge and jealously guard their own secrets.

Rowan is a Steerswoman on a quest to understand the mysterious blue jewels that have been scattered across the known world. As she travels, gathering clues and companions - a barbarian amazon and a blacksmith's son with an unusual talent - she begins to realise that she is being hunted. Why is there a price on her head? How can she protect herself and her fellow Steerswomen? Are the very principles they live by in peril?

Rosemary Kirstein unveils her fantasy realm unhurriedly, scattering isolated clues, like strangely familiar puzzle pieces, throughout the story. Clues for Rowan, and different clues for the reader, who is allowed the exquisite satisfaction of shadowy suspicions being gradually rounded out, without ever becoming expository.